Interviews | Self-Publishing Review

Frugal Book Promotion – An Interview with Carolyn Howard-Johnson

Although we self-pubs have all heard by now that traditional publishers are doing less promotion for their authors than they used to, compared to where we’re sitting, they still have it pretty good. They have a Real Publisher backing their work. They actually have a shot at being taken seriously before anyone even reads their book, and at being reviewed by the New York Times. Because we don’t have any of that, if we want people to know about our books, we’re going to have to do our own promotion and marketing.

No one seems to know more about […]

Kristen Tsetsi2011-10-08T19:43:40+02:00January 7th, 2010|Categories: Interviews|

Zombocalypse Now: A Review & Interview with Matt Youngmark

Zombocalypse Now is like the old Choose Your Own Adventure books. And when I say “like,” I mean exactly like. It consists of two-page chapters and at end of each chapter it says: if you’d like to do X, go to page X, if you’d like to do Y, go to page Y. Chance happens that I’d been rereading my old CYOA books with my daughter (they age well), so I have a sense of how these things read. With the old CYOA books they can be hit or miss. The main problem is that the choices either aren’t all […]

Henry Baum2011-10-08T18:46:45+02:00December 15th, 2009|Categories: Book Reviews, Interviews, Lead Story|

600 (or so) Words with Craig Lancaster

This interview with Craig Lancaster, author of 600 Hours of Edward, was originally posted on the blog of Jim Thomsen – “An Aspiring Author’s Journey to the Promised Land of Publication … Where Nothing is Promised.”

Edward Stanton is a man hurtling headlong toward middle age. His mental illness has led him to be sequestered in his small house in a small city, where he keeps his distance from the outside world and the parents from whom he is largely estranged. For the most part, Edward sticks to things he can count on…and things he can count. But over

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Guest Post2011-10-08T20:39:56+02:00November 14th, 2009|Categories: Interviews|

West of Mars: An Interview with Susan Helene Gottfried

Susan Helene Gottfried runs the website West of Mars, where she will tell you she does very little talking about her writing. Instead, she writes. She engages readers addicted to her Demo Tapes, described on her website as “collections of short fiction that introduce you to Trevor, Mitchell, and the rest of the fictional band, ShapeShifter — as well as the world in which they inhabit.” But West of Mars, winner of twenty blog awards, isn’t all about Susan and her own writing. She also promotes other writers who want to reach readers. In the following interview, Susan discusses […]

Kristen Tsetsi2011-10-08T20:22:06+02:00October 30th, 2009|Categories: Interviews, Lead Story|

An Interview with Anne R. Dick – Philip K. Dick's 3rd Wife

Earlier in the year, Self-Publishing Review had an interview with Tessa Dick, last wife of Philip K. Dick, who has self-published a memoir about PKD called Remembering Firebright. Strangely enough, Philip K. Dick’s third wife, Anne Dick, has also self-published a memoir about her former husband, Search for Philip K. Dick. Why should someone close to one of the most beloved and well-known science fiction writers of all time be driven to self-publish? Anne Dick’s book is superlative, it’s one of the best biographies of PKD available – read SPR’s review. From an interview on io9[…]

Henry Baum2011-10-08T20:23:29+02:00October 14th, 2009|Categories: Interviews, Lead Story|

Reviewing the Reviewers Part II

This is a continuation of Reviewing the Reviewers: A Dialogue about Book Reviewing with Steven Reynolds and Carol Buchanan, which led to a very lively discussion.

Self-Publishing Review: When a self-published novel is awful, do you think the reviewer has any responsibility to spare the writer’s feelings?

Steven Reynolds: A writer will always be somewhat hurt by a negative review. You have to assume they’re reasonably happy with the book they published, otherwise why would they bother? So to have some stranger publicly detail its apparent failings is going to hurt.

When confronted with a book that doesn’t […]

Henry Baum2011-10-08T18:52:29+02:00September 30th, 2009|Categories: Interviews, Lead Story|

Author John Lacombe's Response to the Winter Games Controversy

In response to the controversy over the SPR review of the novel, Winter GamesReviewing the Reviewers. – further explored in the post,

I was recently made aware of the controversy that followed Carol Buchanan’s review of my novel Winter Games. I have been following the string of comments below Ms. Buchanan’s review with mixed emotions.

On one hand, it stirs an amount of pride in me to see so many readers coming to the defense of Winter Games. On the other hand, the dialogue has, at times, reached a cringe-worthy level of vitriol. I belong to […]

John Lacombe2011-10-08T19:48:58+02:00September 18th, 2009|Categories: Interviews|

Reviewing the Reviewers: A Dialogue about Book Reviewing

The idea for this dialogue came after the controversy regarding the review of John Lacombe’s Winter Games. If you haven’t seen that thread, check it out, it’s a long one – it has a lot of interesting commentary about how writers and/or their fans should respond to reviews, including examples of how not to respond to a review. Carol Buchanan, who reviewed the book, didn’t like the novel. Steven Reynolds, who reviews for SPR, liked the book in a review for the now-defunct Podler. Carol and Steven got together to talk about the controversy and book reviewing in general. […]